Some people broke into her. OK,
can you show us all his
money? It's the craziest story I've ever
covered. I've ever heard of the fact that it's true.
You know, I I I would say it's it's Wilder
than fiction.
You know, it's it's a it's a Hollywood script
but but, you know we always have to remember that
it's a tragedy and it's it really is.
It really is. And and we hear directly from Jennifer
in the documentary through the police interviews.
My mom screamed.
I kneeled up for her.
You know, one part I found and she grew up
in Scarborough,
Markham area. And we're going to get into the fact
that I mean this,
this young lady lied to her parents and tricked her
parents into
believing a lot of things about her.
But I thought it was interesting that when she was
telling the the cops and it is really that stereotypical
thing that when people are lying and trying to make
up a story about something that happened to them,
she goes, oh, a guy with dried locks did it,
a black guy. He had a Jamaican accent.
She was such a sophisticated liar.
But that is such an old cliche.
You you'd think that she would come up with something
better.
How do you think she was able to fool her
parents for years saying that she was an A student,
she's graduated. She's going to university.
This web of lies that just built up around this
young lady before and leading up to this awful grizzly
murder.
Yeah, I mean, there's been lots of
cliche words to use to describe her.
You know, she's a narcissist,
she's a fantasist. But but one thing's for sure is
she's very confident and she's very good liar.
I said whatever I could to help.
She's so confident that she thought she could pull the
wool over
everyone's eyes. The police, the judge,
the jury, you know, all the lawyers and,
and and in many ways it worked.
Because if you watch her first interrogation video,
you guys laid that out false for,
right? Yeah, yeah. You see that as part of the
narrative of the documentary.
Well, Paul, we hear from our friends about her home
life
and they shed the light on the motivation behind her
arranging to have her parents murdered.
What did we learn about the dynamics of the Pan
family?
Well, the Pan family, they're both people.
And so I can relate to that.
My parents are both people,
the refugees who came from Vietnam to Canada.
And I think there's a lot of emphasis placed on
how much pressure,
especially if you're second generation born here,
that you get from your parents.
And you know, it's kind of that immigrant story.
You've got to succeed immigrant mindset,
but because they risk their lives,
you know, escaping by sea to come here and they
just want their children to do well and to provide
them with every opportunity to succeed.
And I think especially with the mental health wasn't much
talked about back then.
It's not understood with the pressures of that and what
could come from
that exactly. And I think
and mental health is actually a very taboo subject in
the Asian communities,
especially amongst the Vietnamese communities.
Yeah. So it's not really widely talked about and I
think that,
you know, under that immense pressure it LED her to
do.
How do you think viewers then
will feel about Jennifer after watching your dog?
It's it's interesting that we're covering it now.
A lot of people say why now?
The question is, I think best answered by saying
that when, you know, I,
I covered it. I was there the whole 10 months
and she was really made out to be the daughter
from hell.
In fact that was a front page at the Toronto
Sun
the daughter from Hell. Now with a bit of time
we can look back and and see it's maybe a
bit more of a nuanced story and that it's more
complex. It is a complex.
It it's very complex. And and so I I think
that's
that's a really important thing to remember.
And I think hopefully the conversation will revolve around that.
Now you can definitely think she's evil or you can
think that she's hard done by.
And so as a reporter I,
I think do you leave that up to the viewer
who I do my best.
Yeah. To leave that up to the viewer to decide
after you lay it all out for them.
The interrogation techniques play a big part of this story.
And that's what we hear the most.
We hear her in her own voice saying what happened
that night.
One thing I found in she's,
I don't want to give too much away because it's
it's in the dark.
But they kind of lied her to trick her into
telling the truth.
What did you think about that as a former crime
report about that part of the interrogation?
It's really interesting because that's the read technique.
It's it's it's actually got its own name.
It's got its own counsel.
Police are allowed to lie to you
because if you are lying,
it's the most cold blooded thing that I have ever
faced in my life.
And they they can use a number of pressure tech
techniques and tactics to get to the confession and this
is what they do to Jennifer.
It's really interesting how you guys deal with that in
the documentary.
And Paul, being a member of the community,
you know, I like the way that you guys built
up to the crescendo with her father,
this father who really wanted her daughter to be a
success.
When he survived that shooting,
did you attempt to speak with him?
And were you the one who or her brother or
were you the one who was able to try to
get into the the community to try to get people
to talk because, you know,
they might not have wanted to talk about this?
How did you? Absolutely. Well,
the director, Jenny Papa, well,
she reached out to me two years ago
and, you know, to help them get access to the
Vietnamese community.
And I've been volunteering in that community for many years
now
and built up sort of trust.
And I'm very familiar with a lot of people.
And Full disclosure, when I would be looking for things
in the Vietnamese community,
this would be one of the people I have called
to
for many, many decades now.
But yeah, so surprisingly, I mean,
I didn't know Jennifer, but the people I contacted,
like actually like knew her directly and I actually knew
them.
So one person like that degree of separation,
you knew somebody literally just one person away.
And I was like very surprised about that.
But I think yes, I did,
you know, reached out to their father.
We asked for in his interview,
but he declined. And we respect that.
But that was a very difficult thing to do.
But I knew it needed to be done.
How do you think they're going to feel after watching
this though?
What do you think? I feel like there may be
a difference between some of the older people in the
community and some of the younger people in the community,
how what they take away from this story in the
documentaries,
the detectives that are speaking from their perspective,
so they'll have an accurate account of what went down.
And I think it's important that
the viewer understands like there's two sides of the story
and that it's not like a simple thing where you
can just get it,
get it from a headline.
So I I hope that they
look into it and, you know,
get into the nuance and the complexities and then come
to their own conclusion.
Jeremy, how do you think this is going to appeal
to a global audience?
Because you're showing this in the world on Netflix now
and and does it speak to,
you know, immigrant life in this country?
Well, it's interesting. So there's a book
by Amy Cha Chua that's called
Tiger Parenting. Yes, I've heard of that.
You've heard it. Yeah, I've seen her interviewed on 60
Minutes.
It blew up when I remember when it came and
there was a lot of it was very divisive.
Her second book is called What you mentioned Off the
top is The Immigrant Story.
So she changed from whether this is an Asian or
Chinese story
this parenting or if it's just immigrants
because you know Italians Jews W Indians,
Nigerians I think we all have.
You come to Canada and you want to sacrifice to
get you here right.
You have to prove. So you want to be a
doctor a lawyer or an engineer it's the same in
this story.
And her father she was scared of blood so he
said a pharmacist
and so and I think her brother studied engineering too
he's he's an engineer
and so and and you'll you'll see this story quite
widely told.
So I I would, I would guess that
that a lot of people are going to relate to
the story.
My hope is, you know,
I can just relate being a Vietnamese person,
second generation and having pressures from my own parents.
And sometimes it hurt me and upset me a lot,
but I wouldn't resort to something like this.
And I just hope that the dialogue can happen and
have more healing and people can come to understanding and
avoid these kind of situations.
Gentlemen, good luck with this Canadian true Crime Story.
You really tell a compelling tale.
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Dwight.
Thank you. Thanks. Good to see you again,
man. Thank you.